This past weekend, we celebrated the United State’s Independence Day. Concurrently, I am working with several clients to create a comprehensive long-term care plan for their family member with a disability. While none of us lives completely independent of others, the goal of most American adults is to live as independently as possible. Describing “as independent as possible” for a particular adult with disabilities is the first step towards building a long-term care plan t

This past weekend, my younger son turned 15. Fifteen is a nice, solid number, but it is a “not-quite” age. Not-quite old enough to drive, not-quite old enough to work, at least that’s the case for most employers. It is a birthday that can go a bit unnoticed. For children with disabilities and their families, the focus is often on age 18. It is true that 18 is an inflection point. Prior to the children’s age 18, parents have control and veto power over their children’s d

One of my husband’s favorite movies is The Goonies, in which a small band of quirky childhood friends pursue a lost pirate treasure in Oregon. In one scene, one of the band sets off a Rube Goldberg machine involving a ball, a track, a bucket, a sprinkler, a lot of string and a live, egg-laying chicken which, when functioning correctly, allow him to unlatch and open the front gate without leaving his bedroom. A Rube Goldberg machine is defined as a chain reaction that uses e

When I work with clients to create a comprehensive financial plan, one of the big questions we often need to tackle is “How much do I need to fund the Supplemental Needs Trust for my loved one with a disability?” The way we develop an answer requires asking a lot more questions to define the relevant variables. Since these types of trusts are designed specifically to pay for goods and services that government benefits programs do not cover, the first set of questions we ne

Graduation signs and university banners have been popping up all over our neighborhood. Local students are taking one step further towards starting their adult lives. Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities grow up and move on, too. Project SEARCH or a similar work-based learning program. Project Search is a collaboration between certain school districts, one or more adult disability service provider agencies, and one or more employers in the same area

When a young person with a disability turns 18, the youth and his/her parents are under pressure to complete a lot of tasks quickly. The young person may need Powers of Attorney or some form of guardianship so that parents can continue to provide input for financial, health care, and other decisions. The youth will benefit from filing for Social Security disability benefits but may also need updated testing to accurately reflect her or his support needs. It may be necessar

I was very excited when a former client returned with a request to work together on a Plan to Achieve Self Support (PASS). Either PASS is a well-kept secret or the 10-page form that the Social Security Administration requires discourages people from using this tool which can generate significant career development and financial benefits for a person with disabilities who receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI)or who could receive SSI once the plan is implemented. This b

I spent half of last week at the Illinois Center for Transition and Work’s (ICTW’s) annual symposium. As the name suggests, the Center’s mission is developing, educating about, and promoting approaches that improve the employment outcomes of students with disabilities--including intellectual and developmental disabilities and those requiring a high level of support—to move towards a post-secondary outcome of competitive employment in the community. I brought to the table ed

I’m a Bob’s Burgers fan. That said, I’m an amateur who has only watched the full series once all the way through. I follow a Facebook® group of serious Bob’s Burger’s scholars. What I’ve learned is that the show has maintained some remarkable consistencies throughout all 16 seasons and even the movie. This despite the fact that, like any sitcom, one has to suspend disbelief to enjoy the plot twists and reconciliations. Bob, the titular character, is more passionate abo

The topic of ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) accounts has come up recently with several client families. Here is a quick refresher on the basics of ABLE. A person is eligible to open and use an ABLE account if her/his disability meets the Social Security definition, whether or not s/he has filed for or is receiving Social Security disability benefits and the disability started before s/he turned 46. A person can only have one ABLE account. The basic annual contribu

If you readers notice that this blog is late, I have two excuses. Spring Break and Tax Season. While it would be more entertaining to write about the former, I am taking a plunge and writing about the latter as it pertains to people with disabilities and some of their situations. As a disclaimer, I am not a tax professional. Please consult with your tax professional about your specific situation(s) before making tax decisions. Q. Is Supplemental Security Income taxable?

Government entities create their own realities , governed by the rules that each has put into place. When I first studied the IRS rules on reporting income, I was surprised to read that the IRS expects people to report and pay tax on income generated through illegal activities, such as selling drugs or stolen property. In my mind, the word for emphasis in the previous sentence should be “illegal”, but in the collective mind of the IRS and “according to their rules”, the wo

People who are born with disabling conditions such as genetic disorders or people who are diagnosed with conditions in early childhood such as often autism spectrum disorder, generally progress through different Social Security Disability benefits as they move from one stage of life to another. Generally, the person first becomes eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) at age 18. SSI requires no work history, but it does require an impairment or combination of impai

Government programs come with rules and rules come with forms. The more rules, the more forms. The forms are time consuming and may be confusing, but they are also the best way to present your situation. There is no rule that says people who get Social Security benefits cannot work. But those who do work have to follow specific rules and, yes, submit specific forms. If you work, or have worked, and apply for Social Security Disability Benefits—either SSI or SSDI—you wil

After spending 90 minutes walking a client through the myriad questions on the Social Security Disability application, I and the client generally breathe a sigh of relief. It would be nice if the application was a “one and done”, but often it is not. Instead, submitting the initial application generates a round of follow-up forms. One of the forms that a claimant is likely to receive as a follow-up to her/his Social Security Disability application is the SSA 3373 BK Adult

In my last two blogs, I talked about when applicants might or might not be eligible for Social Security Disability benefits. In this one, I will talk about what happens when an applicant is not only eligible for benefits, but eligible for more than one, either concurrently or sequentially. I will start by reviewing the different types of benefits. Supplemental Security Income or SSI is the disability benefit created under Title XVI of the Social Security Act and sometim

In my last blog, I shared examples of how a person who is applying for Social Security Disability benefits—either SSI or SSDI—must demonstrate that her/his conditions are expected to be long term and are significant enough to prevent the person from performing Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA), without special conditions, such as Impairment Related Work Expenses or Employer Subsidies. As if the duration of disability and SGA criteria were not enough, each type of disabilit

My older son is applying for postsecondary programs. He does not have a lot of patience for administrative processes, so he requires a lot of handholding. He figures that since he has decent grades and since he will be getting his diploma, he meets the admissions criteria. My response is yes, but…you still have to fulfill the bureaucratic criteria. You have to complete the application. You (or we) have to pay the application fee. Your school has to provide your transcri

When you have a child with a disability, you want to focus on what s/he can do. You hope that once the child reaches early adulthood, what the child can do evolves into paid employment. At home, you teach your child to master household tasks like doing their own laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming and raking leaves, etc. At school, starting when your child turns 14 and a half, you work with the IEP and transition team to build pre-vocational skills int

“When is a door no longer a door? When it is ajar.” The old children’s joke could be rewritten for Social Security Disability in this way “When is earned income no longer countable income? When it is IRWE or Subsidy.” In my last blog, I said that people with disabilities, who work and receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), may not want to rely on the Automatic Wage Reporting system in situations where not all of the inc